We ask Joie Risk: What's changing in the 'at home' space from a sauna brand perspective?

We ask Joie Risk: What's changing in the 'at home' space from a sauna brand perspective?

Joie Risk is the European MD of Sunlighten, a Global leader in light therapy saunas, pioneering wellness and helping people to feel better, do more, and live fully. 

Over the last two years, Joie has seen the at-home wellness trend becoming more mainstream. Catapulted by the Covid pandemic when thousands had more time on their hands to sit at home and contemplate their wellbeing, mortality, and how to get more from life. Joie And with that, people realised they had to take more responsibility for their own health. 

Since then, Joie and the Sunlighten team have seen a huge shift toward buying devices to improve health and wellbeing at home. So much so, that by 2030, they predict the at-home health industry will be worth over $500 billion. 

The other factor is stress. Stress has never been a bigger issue than in today’s modern world.  Together with the increased awareness of the dangers of stress as a cause of both physical and mental illness has also contributed to this multi-billion dollar projection. 

When combining this with the rising longevity trend in the scientific community which is now treating ‘aging’ in itself as a disease, people are searching for solutions. Ice bathing is one of the more accessible ways to reduce stress as well as tapping into the longevity trend due to the anti-inflammatory properties of the cold. 

Alongside thought leaders like Wim Hof, Sunlighten has been invited to take part in a Netflix documentary due for release in 2024 called Longevity Hackers, where scientists discuss the shift in the way we think of aging and how healthcare might evolve. The documentary suggests it will become routine for us to have an ‘MOT-style’ health check of our bodies and life expectancy could reach up to 200 years or more. The experience of aging is also expected to shift, whereby instead of succumbing to various illnesses as we age, we will enjoy great health, and then, as Joie puts it, “suddenly drop down dead”.

Joie Ricsk and Brass Monkey Ice baths

Hear more from Joie when we ask her about contrast therapy, and what advice she would give to someone using an ice bath for the first time?